The processing of photosensitive material such as photographic film involves a series of steps such as developing, bleaching, fixing, washing and drying. In this process, a continuous web of film or cut sheet of film or photographic paper is sequentially conveyed through a series of stations or tanks, with each one containing a different processing solution appropriate to the process step at that station. In conventional processors, the tanks of the processor are usually set forth in a side by side relationship. This arrangement increases the footprint of the processor and thus requires a large amount of space.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,261 discloses a low volume photographic processing apparatus that utilizes a plurality of processing modules. In this document, nozzles are arranged along the processing path of the processing module for introducing recirculated fluid into the processing path. With the specific module structure of this document, the recirculated fluid is introduced into the processing path via nozzles and there is no provision for a cascading flow of fresh processing solution in the processing path.